An early free kick from Dario Vidosic was the difference as Adelaide United beat a possession-dominating Brisbane Roar 1-0 at Suncorp Stadium tonight.
An early free kick from Dario Vidosic was the difference as Adelaide United beat a possession-dominating Brisbane Roar 1-0 at Suncorp Stadium tonight.
The match had barely begun before Brisbane found themselves on the back foot – a foul just outside the box giving Vidosic the chance to try his luck from a free.
Even with a slight deflection off Mitch Nichols, Vidosic-s effort flew into the top corner of the net to hand his side the early advantage over his former side and the team now coached by his dad.
Conceding an early goal seemed to spur the home side on and it was the Roar who had the hold over the possession and the goal-scoring opportunities for the remainder of the first half.
Thomas Broich went close with diving header and soon after, Nichols missed a chance from point-blank range that was carved out by the returning Ivan Franjic down the right flank.
The German playmaker slammed a later chance into Eugene Galekovic-s side netting before the Adelaide goalkeeper was called into action to palm away the header from one of his own defenders after a well-taken Roar free kick.
Despite an early disallowed goal from Serginho van Dijk, the second half brought even more chances for the home side with Galekovic having to pull off one of the saves of the season to deny Paartalu a trademark header ten minutes after the restart.
The pressure kept building in front of goal with Adelaide barely making it out of their own half in the match-s later stages.
In the 75th minute, Broich flashed a ball across the face of goal just a little bit ahead of the run of Nichols before Stefanutto and striker Besart Berisha played out almost the same scenario three minutes later.
Youngster Nick Fitzgerald was introduced eight minutes from time in a bid maintain the tempo at the top end of Brisbane-s attack but even with a flurry of corners in the three minutes of stoppage time, the Roar failed to find the back of the net for the second time in two weeks.
Head Coach Rado Vidosic was still able to take the positives out of his team-s performance.
“We created enough chances against a team that defended desperately,” he said.
“We got around them, we got some very good opportunities and any other day we could have scored a couple of goals and that would have been enough.”
Brisbane Roar 0
Adelaide United 1 (Dario VIDOSIC 2-)
Sunday, 4 November 2012
Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Kick off: 4pm local time
Referee: Chris Beath
Crowd: 12,856
Brisbane Roar: 1. Michael THEO (gk), 2. Matt SMITH (c), 3. Shane STEFANUTTO, 4. Matt JURMAN, 5. Ivan FRANJIC, 6. Erik PAARTALU, 7. Besart BERISHA, 8. Massimo MURDOCCA, 10. HENRIQUE (24. Nick FITZGERALD 81-), 17. Mitch NICHOLS, 19. Jack HINGERT, 22. Thomas BROICH
Substitutes not used: 18. Luke BRATTAN, 19. Jack HINGERT, 20. Matt ACTON (gk)
Yellow cards: Shane STEFANUTTO 30-
Red cards: Nil
Adelaide United: 1. Eugene GALEKOVIC (gk), 2. Osama MALIK, 3. Nigel BOOGAARD, 5. Iain FYFE, 8. Marcelo CARRUSCA (22. Fabio FERREIRA 66-), 9. Serginho VAN DIJK, 10. Dario VIDOSIC (11. Bruce DJITE 81-), 12. Antony GOLEC, 16. Daniel BOWLES, 17. Iain RAMSAY, 21. Jeronimo NEUMANN (14. Cameron WATSON 58-)
Substitutes not used: 30. John HALL (gk)
Yellow cards: Serginho VAN DIJK 31-, Marcelo CARRUSCA 37-, Dario VIDOSIC 73-, Daniel BOWLES 77-, Eugene GALEKOVIC 90+2-
Red cards: Nil
